I had learned that promises were often nothing more than beautifully packaged lies.
The clock on the wall showed 10:03 a.m. My pen had hardly left the page before David’s phone lit up. He didn’t even look at me before answering.
“Yes, I’m done,” he said, already getting to his feet, already impatient. “Give me ten minutes. I’ll be there before they call you in. Today’s the ultrasound, right?”
He smiled.
Actually smiled.
Then he said the sentence that destroyed the final illusion I still carried.
“Don’t worry, my whole family’s coming. Your son is the heir to our family, after all.”
My stomach should have knotted. My heart should have shattered. Instead, all I felt was a strange, heavy calm—as if my grief had burned for so long that nothing remained except ashes.
Across from me, the mediator cleared his throat and slid the remaining documents toward David. “Mr. Harlow, if you would just review the settlement terms—”
David brushed him off, signed without reading, and tossed the papers back across the table. “Nothing to review. She gets nothing. The condo is mine. The car is mine. If she wants the kids, she can have them. Honestly, that makes things easier.”His older sister Megan, who had insisted on attending as though my divorce were entertainment, let out a sharp laugh. “Exactly. David’s moving on. He doesn’t need extra baggage.”
One of his aunts, standing near the window in a cream-colored pantsuit drenched in perfume, clicked her tongue. “A man deserves to want a son. Everyone knew Catherine was never enough for him.”
Another voice followed immediately after. “And now he finally has a woman who can give this family what it deserves.”
What it deserves.
Not who it deserves.
What.
I reached into my purse and placed a set of keys on the table. “These are the condo keys.”
David glanced down, briefly surprised, then leaned back with a smug expression. “Good. At least you understand how this works.”
Ignoring him, I pulled out two navy-blue passports.
“The children’s visas were approved last week,” I said.
David frowned. “What visas?”
“I’m taking Aiden and Chloe to London.”
The room fell completely silent.
Megan reacted first. “You’re what?”
I met David’s eyes steadily. “I’m taking my children to London.”David let out a short, cold laugh. “You can’t even afford your own legal bills, Catherine. How exactly are you planning to take two kids overseas?”
“You don’t need to worry about my finances.”
“Those are my children,” he snapped.
“And yet you just signed paperwork giving me permission to take them.”
His mouth opened, then closed again.
For the first time that morning, uncertainty crossed his face.
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